Premier League Primary Stars and diversity at Stopsley Community Primary School

The Premier League Writing Stars poetry competition has returned for 2018, encouraging primary school pupils to write creatively on the theme of diversity and celebrating differences and similarities.

Premier League Writing Stars is one of the competition elements of the Premier League Primary Stars education programme, which enables teachers to access free curriculum-linked resources including diversity themed videos and activities.

Stopsley Community Primary School in Luton first discovered Premier League Primary Stars through their work with Luton Town FC Community Trust and have used the free online resources across lessons to explore themes of teamwork and diversity.

Robyn Britten, PE lead and class teacher at the school, soon realised the great response pupils had to the Premier League brand and the football-themed PSHE resources.

“Initially, we introduced the PSHE resources in assemblies when the Luton Town FC Community Trust coach came in to deliver a Play the Right Way assembly, which is about the importance of team work and earning each other’s respect. The children really engaged with the topic during the assembly, and we found this approach worked really well for playtime and lunchtime, with fewer arguments occurring between the children as a result.

“It’s really useful having football players feature on the resources – the children seeing the people they respect and look up to demonstrating good behaviour, makes it easy for them to adopt the same behaviours.

“The PSHE resources about diversity include PowerPoints and videos, as well as activities and worksheets, which can be easily incorporated into lessons. They encourage children to recognise and discuss diversity and what it means to them both in school and in the community, celebrating both similarities and differences, and developing understanding of how to recognise diversity and value others.”

Year 4 Teacher at Stopsley Community Primary School, Louise Hooper, added:

“When we saw the Premier League Primary Stars diversity pack, we could see it immediately related to R.E. The resources are accessible and fit in with the curriculum that we’re using. It’s tremendous - the diversity of players competing in the Premier League, coming from different countries with different cultures – it’s such an obvious place to show diversity in action; this is diversity working. If you educate the child [on matters of diversity]; you can educate the family.

“The best thing about using the Premier League Primary Stars resources in our classroom was the impact. I’m really proud of the outcomes I saw in the children’s writing, that had come from really good deep discussion, detailing what diversity means to them.”

Both teachers from Stopsley Community Primary School highly recommend Premier League Primary Stars resources to any teacher wanting to engage their class with something fresh and new and which encourages their pupils to do their best.

Watch the film above to find out more about how Stopsley Community Primary School have celebrated diversity in the classroom using Premier League Primary Stars resources.

Maybe you'll be inspired to enter this year’s Premier League Writing Stars poetry competition.